The Educational Writings of Richard MulcasterMulcaster, Richard
History
The Educational Writings of Richard Mulcaster
Mulcaster, Richard
Education -- History
wealth enough in private possession, if there were will enough to
endow public education. Yet we have no great cause to complain in
regard to the number of schools and founders, for already during
the time of Her Majesty’s most fortunate reign there have been
more schools erected than existed before her time in the whole
kingdom. I would rather have fewer and have them better appointed
for the master’s accommodation and for general convenience. A
small amount of help will make most of our rooms serve, and enable
our teachers to give instruction and carry on the exercises under
satisfactory conditions. The places for study and for exercise
ought to adjoin each other, and be capable of holding considerable
numbers, to be determined by the needs of the surrounding district.
The schools that I know are mostly well placed already, or if they
are in the heart of towns, they could be easily exchanged for some
country situation, far from disturbances yet near enough to all
necessary conveniences. It would be a very useful part of a great
and good foundation if it provided for the removal of rooms to
more suitable places, either by exchange or by new purchase, and
I think licence would more readily be granted for this purpose
than to build new schools. I am all the more impelled to recommend
a country situation on account of the inconveniences that I have
myself experienced, both in regard to my own health and that of
my scholars, and the lack of facilities for the exercises on which
I lay so much store. Yet I am by no means the worst off in this
respect, owing to the zeal and generosity shown in the provision
made by the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in London, in
whose school I have now served for twenty years, the first and
only headmaster since its foundation. If ye consider what is to
be done in these rooms which I desire, ye shall better judge what
rooms will serve. Two rooms will be sufficient for the language
study and the continuation of the elementary course, an upper
room with proper arrangements for ventilation and the prevention
of too much noise, and another similarly fitted up underneath to
serve for what else is to be done. I could wish that we had fewer
schools and that they were more efficient; it would be well if on
careful consideration of the most convenient centres throughout
the country, many of the existing schools could be put together to
make a few good ones. To conclude this matter, I wish the rooms to
be commodious, for though such studies as reading require small
elbow-room, writing and drawing must not be straitened, nor music
either, and physical exercises especially must have ample scope.
And such rooms, if the numbers are not too large, if the distance
is not too great for the young children, will with some distinction
and separation of places serve conveniently both for the elementary
school and the grammar school, which is so much the better.
Best Hours for Study.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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